So, What Now?

I know what happens next. And so do/will the people close to me but right now let's focus on what happened yesterday.
Before I get into it I'd like to say that I simply wasn't good enough on the day. There are many factors that contributed to that which I will go into shortly but that's marathon running for you. I accept that the current record holder who ran the VMLM in 2015 had many of the same issues to deal with and I HAD enormous respect for him and his achievement. So to the race:
I've been under huge self inflicted mental pressure leading up to race day. As you may know, my training programme didn't go entirely to plan and the closer you get to race day the less you can do about it until finally all you can do is think about it. It is a huge mind game.
There's a lot to get down so I'll try to condense it so as not to lose you. It may get a bit disjointed as I remember different bits of the day.
I kept waking the night before, dripping with sweat, clearly anxious about race day. When I got to the Green start and checked in with Guinness, they were branding all the record attempts with GWR logos - easy if you have a large silly costume, not so easy on me. I was asked "Do you mind if we put some stickers on your balls?" to which I replied "Yes! Yes I do. That's not going to work". In the end I had a little logo pinned to the front of my shorts. There was a lot of hanging about at the start. Guinness took pre-race pictures of all the record attemptees and a big group shot just before the start. There were lots of cameras about taking pictures and videos of some of the other record attemepts but as I didn't have a silly costume and largely kept my balls tucked away I looked just like any other runner so nobody bothered me. I practised a little up and down the start and decided to let just a little air out of the balls having put more in them the day before.
Once the race started it was time to get on with the job. I'm always nervous for the first mile or two until I find my rhythm. I had covered the entire course on Monday so I knew the state of the roads but with that many people about there really wasn't a lot I could do to avoid the bad patches. It gets particularly tricky where one bit of road is scuffed and worn and there's a join where a repair has been made and you find yourself walking the line between the two different surfaces and then perhaps there's a camber to deal with too. The worst bits of road where undoubtedly through Docklands where there were some really shocking bits for a basketball player to deal with. There were also man-hole covers, drains bollards and of course lots of course litter to deal with (bottles, gel sachets etc). I managed to avoid all the bottles but every so often bounced a ball in some gel which affects how my hand interacts with the ball as it dries out. As my hands and the balls get covered in dirt again I get a more normal touch back. The on course showers were another tricky area as the water often spread right across the course. Initially I had to avoid obvious puddles but any thin layer of water takes some of the bounce from the balls. The water also rehydrates the gel residues on my hands and the balls and I have to go through that drying out process again.
I wanted to keep the 4 hour pacer in sight for as long as possible, given that the next pacer was 04:15 and that was too slow. I was doing OK to begin with but realised I'd lost him around mile 7. One problem I found was that every time a slower runner held me up, three other runners would overtake me because it takes me longer to negotiate slower runners as I need a lot more space to do so. This problem got worse from Docklands onwards as more and more people were walking.
I was wearing my hydration pack with 1000ml of Torq energy drink in and 26 jelly babies in the pockets. I had practiced drinking and eating on the run but it involves letting one ball take a free bounce while I put the drink pipe or a jelly baby in my mouth (I had made certain Guinness were happy with this). The trouble was that it was so congested I didn't feel safe allowing that free bounce anywhere in case someone knocked the ball. As a consequence, my 'little and often' drinks strategy didn't work. I have just emptied my pack and discovered that I finished with 400ml of liquid and 19 jelly babies - all weight I didn't need to be carrying. Although I was stopping at water stations in the latter stages I realised that I must have been severely dehydrated when I got home at about 22:00 and realised that despite having drank a bottle of water, a bottle of Lucozade, a pint of coke and two bottles of beer, I hadn't been for a wee since before the race. I'm now wondering if I would do better to ditch the back pack and just stop at water stations.
I lost a ball a few times. I think the first was at Cutty Sark as we came into Greenwich and turned the corner. Corners are a nightmare as unless I can get to the outside edge (almost impossible to arrange in those crowds) I get squashed as the whole pack tries (quite legitimately) to take the shortest line. I remember a couple of other wobbles as I tried to negotiate my way to the edge to take a break and I remember a woman knocking a ball out of my hand as she tried to squeeze past me as we exited the underpass in Docklands. Further into the race (and fortunately after I'd written off the record attempt) some idiot came up behind me and tried to steal one of the balls from me. I managed to fend him off and offered him a few choice words I won't repeat here but that could've mattered.
There's so much more I could write but I knew it probably wasn't going to be my day by the time I got to Tower Bridge and it was mile 15 where I dropped below the average pace I needed to secure the record and there was no way I was going to recover that time I was continuing to lose. I was OK when the sun went in and in fact had a nice spurt through part of Docklands in the shade but as soon as I hit the sun it just sapped the energy from me.
I had a lot of time on the course to come to terms with the fact I wasn't going to beat the record but still had to concentrate. There was no question that I wouldn't finish but as I came past the Tower of London again and being mentally beaten I began to look up and enjoy the crowds. I would look for people that had spotted me and that had two free hands and I would stop for a while, ask them to hold the balls while I blew my nose and had a little drink and a rest. So I would like to thank all the supporters on the marathon course that held my balls while I got my breath back. You were a great comfort!
I was determined to finish strong so had one more rest on Birdcage Walk before passing Buckingham Palace and storming up The Mall. I was a long way short of the record but the urgency had gone by mile 16. A good finish was all that was needed now. I crossed the line and laid down in the first gutter I could find. An official brought me some water and shortly after another insisted I get up so he could look at me. Worried about my health he called over a St John's ambulance person but she and I both knew the only real damage was to my pride. I made my way through the finish area and met my wife and then caught up with a few of my club friends. Eventually I made it to The Crown and Anchor in Drummond St where one of my charities (Orchid Cancer) had a reception and a masseur lined up. She set to work on me and absolutely pummelled me. I was literally crying in pain and she said to me "Don't be a baby! You're a man not a mouse! I haven't started yet, I'm just warming you up". By the time she'd finished I didn't know whether to thank her or file an assault charge. I'm sure it's done me some good in the long term though.
There are so many people to thank. My wife first for putting up with me and my training and organising all the family support on the day including making t-shirts for the children. Everyone at Petts Wood Runners (surely the best running club in the world?) especially Karen Barritt and the rest of the Committee who very kindly gave me a club place for my record attempt. I'm just sorry it didn't work out. Special thanks to Mike Reeves, who everybody loves, for his track sessions and words of wisdom and thanks to every PWR who contributes to making the club the positive, loving and supportive place that it is. Thanks also to Jess and Collette at Carshalton Osteopaths who fixed me and reassured me after Toby punched me in the ribs (see earlier post!) and to Minni Gupta at Bromley Physiotherapy for all the exercises and work she did on me to get and keep me fit. Thanks to everyone else who supported me through sponsorship, messages, cheering on the day or just watching the race on the telly and thinking of me. And finally Thanks to my parents for coming down to support me and most importantly teaching me the importance of being a two handed player as a child.

The only picture of me after the race. I wasn't really in the mood for photos. 

Brighton Marathon

I was watching it not running it. But because of that I had to get my longish run in on Saturday morning before a family engagement. Not only that but I had to be finished before the Parkrunners needed the park which meant I had to be running by 6:45am. I am happy with the state of my race balls and having put a few miles on them I want to preserve them for race day now, so I got out an old leathery pair to parade around the park with Saturday. It was a lovely morning but very cold. I think the car said it was just 4 degrees. This is not good for my hands and I ended up splitting the index finger on my left hand, having split the one on my right hand at Bluewater a week earlier which had mostly healed in the following week.
I ran deliberately slowly this week as the plan I'm loosely following said I should be doing a 2 hour easy run. So off I went, round and round, overtaken a couple of times by fellow Petts Wood Runner Martin Cunningham who was obviously getting a few miles in before performing his Parkrun Run Director duties that morning. It was a fairly uneventful run. I saw a few familiar faces as people began to arrive for Parkrun but I covered 12.38 miles in a few seconds over 2 hours which was a slow pace of 9:43 per mile. I'm happy with that as I still wasn't over all the snottyness and grogginess I'd been suffering from since last weekend. It's still hanging in there now but clearly on its way out.
Sunday was another early start to catch the coach to Brighton to support my fellow Petts Wood Runners in the marathon. It left at 6:30am. The weather was bonkers for marathon running - far too hot. I'm really glad I wasn't running and sincerely hope it's cooler in London on the 23rd. It was actually 9 degrees warmer in London than Brighton which doesn't bear thinking about.
We must've had about 30 runners at Brighton and pretty nearly all of them suffered in the heat. In fact I've no doubt they all suffered but some more than others. Not everyone finished and many of the others would rather not talk about their time. It was a lovely day for the spectators though but not nice to watch your friends struggling in the heat like that.
I was supposed to be doing some filming with Guinness this Wednesday but having arranged the day off (not easy to do at short notice when you look after other people's children as I do) they decided at the end of last week that they were going to put a hold on it! I don't know if that will get rescheduled.
I won't run with balls this coming weekend in order to preserve my hands and I'm taking the family to see the Harlem Globetrotters on Sunday to get in the basketball mood. On Easter Monday I'm going to walk parts of the Marathon course to look out for manhole covers, poor road surfaces and traffic islands etc. It's getting very close now (but there's still time to send me a good luck message along with a few quid for the charities I'm running for - www.virginmoneygiving.com/kevhowarth )

Thirsty work watching the Brighton Marathon

20 Miles Around Bluewater

No. I wasn't shopping with the wife.
But lets just get the excuses out the way before we carry on. If you're up to speed you'll know that I hadn't been able to run for 3 weeks. I did a Parkrun then went out and did 19 miles the next day. That was last weekend so I've had this week to get back on track. I was in bed before 10pm this Friday, feeling really tired and was up at 05:30 feeling ill on the Saturday. I spent most of Saturday sleeping in the beanbags or in bed and taking the maximum dose of paracetamol and ibuprofen. Naturally, when I wasn't asleep I was worrying about whether or not I'd be able to run 20 miles with basketballs the next day. Somehow I managed to convince myself that I was well enough to do this. I couldn't put it off. This was the last weekend before taper and even if I could postpone it the chances were that my friend from Petts Wood Runners, Paul Haylock, wouldn't be able to make the following weekend anyway (Paul was the only person I managed to convince to join me in the end). It had to be done this weekend and I think I just managed to convince my system to give me a few hours sabbatical to get this done.

I woke up at 03:58 on Sunday, two minutes before my alarm was due to go off. Still not feeling brilliant but convinced I was well enough to give it a go, I fueled up (had some breakfast - and another couple of paracetamol) and picked Paul up at 04:50. We made our base at Costa and got ready to start. A quick 'before' picture and we set off at 05:28.

Just before we started

I had my Garmin tied to my waist and Paul had a Garmin and his phone timing/tracking us. I had been to Bluewater earlier in the week to collect security passes and measure the circuit we'd be running accurately. A lap around the outside edge of the upper floor was 787 metres - just under half a mile. I discovered from looking at the data from a previous visit I had made with my Garmin that it didn't provide accurate enough results due to being indoors.

So we were off. And as I had Paul with me and I had given him a sheet of splits to tell us how we were doing compared to the 9 minutes per mile pace I wanted to run, I didn't worry about looking at my Garmin which was just running as a stopwatch. Paul would keep track of the laps with a clicker and tell me how we were doing for pace each lap. We started off way too quick, then eased off a little. After a few laps a security man tried to stop me bouncing the balls "because of the shop windows". Without actually stopping I told him we had permission from Rob (the security manager) and that I had passes in my pack if he wanted me to stop and get them out. It seems he didn't so we carried on.

Somewhere around 14 laps, according to Paul, we were a few minutes up so it was looking good that we'd be able to keep a 9mpm overall pace. By lap 27 we were apparently around 5 minutes up - Cruising! But then at lap 28 Paul looked at his watch and there were some worrying noises, most notably "That can't be right?!". It turns out that Paul's watch had made a flimsy satellite link and he had it set up to auto-pause, so every time it lost the link it thought we had stopped and so it stopped the timer. So as it happens, we worked out that at around 14 miles we weren't 5 minutes up, we were around 7 minutes down! quite a mental blow to deal with. We may have recovered a little of that time in the next lap or two but we never got it back entirely and actually ended up losing a bit more. I had to stop a few times to blow my nose and several times had to discretely hoik up some nastiness from the back of my throat. Also in the final few laps my left shoulder was really aching. We finished our 41 laps much slower than we started but we did it.

I was a little disheartened that this hadn't turned out to be quite the final confidence booster I had planned. But then I had to remind myself how ill I'd felt just the day before and how if this hadn't been the last hard training weekend of the most important race of my life I should've probably spent the day at home in bed again. We dumped our stuff in the car and I bought the two of us breakfast, however, I couldn't eat much of it. I dropped Paul home and went straight back to bed - which in fairness isn't unusual for me after a long run but I wasn't just tired this time, I was ill. So ill in fact that I couldn't even be bothered to get up and write this. It's Monday afternoon now and I'm still feeling shabby and have very little appetite. If I wasn't self employed I'd've probably quite legitimately taken the day off. BUT! I am now convinced that if I can do 20 miles under those conditions, I can certainly still break this record on the day. As with any race for any runner it all depends on how you feel on the day.

In other news, Guinness World Records emailed me this morning asking if I would take part in some filming next week. They said (amongst other things): "The video gives you the chance to talk about your GWR attempt at London and your training and impact it's had on fundraising etc". This is probably going to happen next Wednesday so it would be great if I could say what a marvellous flood of generous sponsorship I've had in the last week! I'll just leave this here:
www.virginmoneygiving.com/kevhowarth

Paul Haylock who was mad enough to get up at silly o'clock and run with me is also running the VMLM for a great cause - Cardiomyopathy UK. You can find out more here:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Paul-Haylock2

Oh! and I nearly forgot. I'm in the latest edition of Runner's World. P41.

Paul's gadgets got a bit confused!

The grey dots represent each time it thinks we stopped!

 

The 'after' shot

19 Miles after 3Wks Out

I'm finally running again. I went to the gym on Tuesday and did an hour on an elliptical trainer and then went back on Thursday with the intention of trying out a treadmill to see if that cushioned my ribs sufficiently for a run. It didn't and I was frightened that the pain would be doing me damage so I did an hour on a bike instead. So I was able to do a good bit of CV work this week but it's no substitute for running. Still concerned about the pain the impact of running was giving me, I called my osteopath on Friday for some reassurance. She agreed to squeeze me in at the end of the day for another check. The upshot of that was that it's ok to run on the pain I'm experiencing. I won't be doing any further damage but I could still be feeling it for another couple of weeks. With this confidence I did Parkrun on Saturday morning. I started slowly but as I got into it the pain eased as my osteopath said it would and I was able to lengthen my stride and finish at a good pace. Happy I was running again I needed to get a good long run in today. Having had three weeks out from running I decided not to take the balls out and just get a solid 19 miles in the bank this morning. Of course this Sunday was Mother's Day so I had to drag one child out of bed and the other away from his Xbox to give Tara her presents and breakfast in bed. Following that I had to spend all morning unblocking the kitchen sink which involved emptying out cupboards, removing the dishwasher and washing machine and ultimately took a good couple of hours to fix.
Finally at 13:00 I got out of the house to run. It was very sunny today. A nice spring day but too warm for my liking (for running in anyway) but if it can do this in March it could certainly be like this in April. Personally I'm hoping for a traditional grey London day on 23rd April.
I did three loops local to my house so I wasn't too far from home if anything went wrong. It took me 02:52:00 to do 19 miles and I was barely out of breath at the end but my legs were not too happy about it. I need to whip them into shape in the coming week. They need to wake up and understand we're not done yet!
I think I saw three fellow PWRs whilst out today, who tooted, waved and pretended to dribble basketballs respectively. It does give me a little boost.
Next Sunday is my last long run at Bluewater that I'll be doing with the balls. A couple of Petts Wood Runners are coming with me and I'm going to have to get up at 4am for the 05:30 start so this week I'm going to try to get to bed earlier and get up earlier to adjust my body clock a bit so that 4am on Sunday is less of a shock.
I got my Final Instructions magazine and notification of my running number from VMLM this week. My running number is 55748 which indicates I should be at the Red Start but after a quick exchange of emails with my VMLM contact he was able to confirm that I will be moved to the Green Start. I'm not sure if that means I will get a different number but I should be getting another letter about it soon.
Now it's lighter in the evenings I should be able to get out into the park after work to do some ball skills which is relaxing after a day of looking after other people's children, and of course, this Friday I'm in Runner's World!

Hot & sunny today (the weather, not me)

Walking & Cycling

I had hoped to be able to run 18 miles this last weekend, preferably with the balls but that didn't happen. My ribs are being sooooo slooooow to recover. I tested them out with a very cautious lap of the park behind my house on Friday night. I managed to complete the half mile loop without the pain making me stop, which is progress but it confirmed for me that a long run is still out of the question. So I went to watch my son play rugby on Sunday whilst many of my fellow Petts Wood Runners were putting in between 18 and 22 miles. Some of them even ran 20 miles of the VMLM course (cutting out Docklands). I would've loved to do that.
So, a little depressed on the way back from rugby it suddenly occurred to me that I can still walk! It's the jarring of running that's hurting my ribs. Surely it would be better for me to do a fast walk and be on my feet for three hours than to just go home for an afternoon nap in the beanbag? Now enthused at the prospect of being able to do something, I got changed and set off for a walk in my new Brooks Glycerin 14s that I didn't get to wear at Silverstone! Now I'm not used to going out for this sort of walk and I overdid the layers. I very quickly had to put my waterproof jacket in the backpack and remove my hat and gloves. I covered 12.53 miles in 03:00:26 which is an average of 14:24 per mile. Not the sort of stats I wanted to be writing about at this stage but at least I was out there. However, walking creates a very different footstrike to running and my heels didn't like it much. Too much heel in a walk.
Having had a bit of a chat on Facebook with our track coach at PWR (thanks Mike), he suggested I could get on a bike at the gym and to a bit of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). So I made enquiries this afternoon and tonight I've been at the gym! Something I haven't done for years. I thought I was going to have to sign up for a month (or until the end of April as we're past the 14th of the month) but when I got there it seems you can just pay your money and get on with it. Things have changed since I worked in the leisure industry. You used to have to fill out a health questionnaire and book an appointment with a fitness instructor for a 40 minute induction to show you how to use everything. Not these days it seems: '£8.75 please. Off you go!' (not her exact words but that's essentially what happened). That's great but you then have to walk into a gym full of much younger and better looking people and pretend that you know what you're doing. The machines have changed a lot too. I managed to get my recumbent bike working without looking like a numpty and did a 3 minute warmup. I then did 20 sets of 60 seconds hard peddling at high resistance followed by 60 seconds of recovery peddling at low resistance. This became 50 seconds hard and 70 seconds recovery after about 10 minutes but I was pleased to be able to do something. I admit I was feeling a little wobbly when I got off the bike. This is all new stuff to me. I'd much rather be pounding the pavement but before I left I had a little go on an elliptical trainer to see if that would bother my ribs. It didn't, so I might go back tomorrow for a session on one of those.
I don't have any pictures of this walking and cycling so this weeks image is me on a bike when I was two.

Cycling 43 years ago.

PB at Silverstone Half

Well, that's what I should be writing about today. Instead, all I have to report is that I haven't been able to run since my last post. I was on top of the world last Saturday following the fast time I put in around the park. I was feeling great and full of confidence that I had a very good chance of putting in a sub 01:50:00 finish at Silverstone. Then Sunday night happened. A bit of horseplay before bed with my 9 year old son and out of nowhere he punched me in the side with such force he sublaxed a rib causing two ribs to cross over, pinching a nerve. I had the rib put back on Monday by my osteopath and she said I should be ok to run on Wednesday - so not such a huge problem then. However, come Wednesday there was no way I could run and I was still in significant pain on Thursday. I went back to the osteopath Thursday night and although all my ribs were where they should be, a bit of light poking and prodding revealed bruising of the intercostal muscles, diaphragm and abs. I've been icing them every hour since where possible but on Saturday night I had to admit to myself that there was no way I was going to be able to run at Silverstone today. Gutted does not begin to describe it. Guinness were there taking publicity shots ahead of the marathon and I really wanted to put on a show in my final race before the big day. However, my osteopath was very clear that if it was hurting and I ran on it I would be delaying my ultimate recovery. As much as it hurt to let go of todays race, I have to consider the bigger picture. Hopefully I'll be running again in the coming week and able to put in 18 miles around the park with the balls next weekend, although I'm currently living in fear of the next sneeze as they're still causing me terrible pain.
Rest is quite possibly the hardest part of training.

He tests my love sometimes

New Unofficial PB

The hamstring feels good. I've been exercising & stretching it and today I ran for the first time with out bandaging it - and to be honest, I didn't even think about it until I was on my walk home.
I was contacted this week via Twitter by a Runner's World editor who wanted more info about my record attempt for a feature in the next edition of RW. I sent her some stuff, she sent me a draft, I filled in the gaps and edited it and I'm going to be in the May edition (UK) which is out on 31st March. It's going to be 200 words and a photo. I might have to renew my subscription! We have left a gap in the article to put in my PB for a half marathon with the balls as I'm running the Silverstone Half next weekend. So naturally I want to put in a good time. With this in mind I went out today round Norman Park to see how long I could maintain a 08:30 mpm pace. It turns out I can do a whole half marathon at that pace which I did in 01:51:16 - averaging exactly 08:30 minutes per mile. My fastest miles were one and two which were both 08:19 and my slowest was mile ten 08:42. Mile ten could have been one of the ones where a dog tried to tackle me. Two dogs had a go today which delayed me slightly.
Around mile 12 I caught up with another runner who said "Hello Kev!" when I pulled alongside him. I confess I didn't know who he was and wasn't able to get a good look at him as I was concentrating on the balls. My running club, Petts Wood Runners, has got so big recently I assumed it must've been another PWR but it turns out it was Robert Elbourn, the stranger I overtook a few weeks ago who took the trouble to find me online and sponsor me. Thanks again Robert and good luck with the Brighton Marathon. I hope the 18 miles you were running today went well. On the subject of sponsorship, if you would like to send me a good luck message with a few quid for my charities (Orchid Cancer and Demelza House Children's Hospice) feel free to follow this link! www.virginmoneygiving.com/kevhowarth
So I left Robert and powered up the final straight to finish the 13.1 miles I wanted to run today. I still had enough for a good sprint finish and felt pretty good at the end. Dare I try to go sub 01:50:00 next weekend? We'll see. Should be safe for a sub 01:55:00 though.
I walked home thinking about Silverstone and found my new race shoes (Brooks Glycerin 14s) waiting for me in the porch. Happy days!

Happy with that. Even though I don't look it.

Bluewater Sorted

It's been another month since my last post. What have I been up to? Well I've done a couple of 20 mile runs with the Bickley Station Harriers (a little sub group of Petts Wood Runners that go out on Sundays). It felt good to get that distance under my belt. I didn't do them with basketballs but it still feels good to get familiar with a relatively fast paced 20. I've been up at the school gym practicing ball skills and I ran the Tunbridge Wells half marathon last Sunday. I had a tiny twang in my right hamstring at track the Thursday before where I still ran but at no more than 80%. I didn't realise there was a term for it but I'm suffering terribly from Maranoia (mental anxiety found in marathon runners, characterised by the irrational belief that last-minute disaster is imminent). Basically I'm terrified I'm going to injure myself. So having had this little twinge and knowing I had a race on the Sunday I booked my legs in for a sports massage. After having a chat with our club coach (and sports masseur) Mike, I decided not to 'race' the Tunbridge Wells half but just to run it at a comfortable pace. It's a very hilly course and not one for attempting PBs anyway. I was enjoying the scenery and running comfortable sub 8 minute miles when I began to notice my hamstring tightening. Then, just before 10 miles, another 'ping!'. Not a terrible pain but enough to make me walk the last three miles. I had my legs carefully massaged again at the finish and saw my Physio on the Monday night. Sparing you the details, I was taped, bandaged and given exercises to do and was able to run again on the Wednesday night. I have to moderate how many miles I'm doing but it's not as big a problem as I was worried it might be.
I ran 4 miles on Wednesday, another 6 on Thursday and on Saturday I took the balls out for 6.69 miles which I did in 57:49 averaging 08:39 per mile. All back to normal next week I think.
In other news I went to Bluewater shopping centre last weekend to walk a lap and see if my Garmin would work indoors - it did! But it turns out that a lap is only just over a quarter of a mile and not the half mile I was lead to believe it was. This means I'm going to have to do in the region of 80 laps to cover 20 miles. And I'm probably going to have to stay on the upper floor if I want my Garmin to work - I can't imagine it's going to work on the lower floor (I forgot to test that). Whilst I was there though, I popped in to the management suite to see if my contact in Security was there. Fortunately he was so I was able to introduce myself. He's happy for me to do the 20 miles on 2nd April as long as I start at 05:30! And miraculously I've found three people so far that have expressed an interest in getting up at silly o'clock to come and run with me. This will be a great confidence boosting run just before I begin to taper. I want to take advantage of the perfect conditions to run 9 minute miles.
I have the Silverstone half marathon with balls on 12 March so I'll probably run a half marathon with balls round the park next weekend. I want to get a balls PB at Silverstone which means going sub 01:56:39. I want to get below 01:55:00 and as close to 01:50:00 as I can.

80 laps of Bluewater Shopping Centre coming up - 02/04/17

Darn Parkrunners!

They make a terrible mess of the path in the winter, those Parkrunners. Muddy sludge all over the top corner of the park. I'm joking though. I love Parkrun. It is a brilliant thing and long may it continue to grow. It does make it difficult for me though. The balls don't bounce well in it, it splatters mud all over my legs and shoes and makes a terrible mess of my hands.
It amazes me how different the conditions are on each side of Norman Park. On one side the wind whistles through you and it's cold, wet and muddy. On the other side there's no wind, the path is dry and in the sunshine it's much warmer. As I started on the muddy side I was immediately concerned that I'd underinflated the balls. They could've done with a little more perhaps but the main problem was the mud. On the better side of the park they weren't performing too badly.
Earlier in the week I'd been discussing with fellow Petts Wood Runners how I should approach this run. The last run I did before Christmas I was on fire. It felt really good and I did the 15 miles averaging less than 9 minutes per mile. I wasn't sure if I should let my ego try and keep this pace today or if I should deliberately slow it down. I don't think it's standard practise to do all your long runs at race pace - it's more about being on your feet for longer. Anyway, it was almost immediately clear to me that I wasn't going to be able to average under 9 minutes for the 17 miles I had planned today. I'll get to the stats later.
I measured how much water I put in my hydration pack today. I put 600ml in it. I need to get an idea of how much I need to carry for the marathon without carrying more than I need. I finished it at 16 miles. I stopped every mile for a time check, a bit of water and a Jelly Baby today. God knows what I ingested in the filth I'd accumulated on my hands each time I fumbled for a Jelly Baby.
At one point I found myself slowly catching up with a woman jogger. When I eventually got alongside her she said "I wondered what that stupid noise was". I laughed it off at the time but it was too late before I wished I'd queried "Stupid?". I don't think she lasted long.
I found it very tough today. I could've cut it short to make the average stats look a bit better but that wouldn't help me in the long term. I was set on 17 miles and it will have done me good to battle though to that today. I have to get used to running on tired legs. So to the stats:
I did the first mile in 08:42. My slowest mile was mile 17 which was 10:34 which will include stopping for water and Jelly Babies but the clock won't stop for that on April 23rd. I did 17 miles in 02:43:04 which is an average of 09:35 per mile. At that pace I would miss out on the world record by around 30 seconds. That annoys me but it was a training run and this is still well within my grasp. It's just not in the bag yet. I was so drained at the end that I have spent most of the afternoon in bed. I might give myself a light week this coming week. I think I need to recover before I try 18 or 19 miles.
STOP PRESS! My phone has just buzzed. Someone has sponsored me. A man called Robert Elbourn. Never heard of him! Not surprising though. This is the message he sent:

"OUTSTANDING you overtook me and I followed you for 12 miles today. You are well on for the record. I was following at 9.06 per mile"

How lovely! That's not the only sponsorship I got today though. Joe the cyclist stopped me and gave me a fiver after I explained what I was up to. It turns out he's done a bit of fundraising for Demelza House in the past too.
In other news, I heard from Bluewater shopping centre this week that they are going to let me do a 20 mile training run around the mall. I asked them a while ago as I read somewhere that a full circuit is half a mile. I thought it would be fun to do 20 laps on each level. Nice and flat too. No potholes. A nice confidence booster before the main event. Anyway, I've got to sort out the details with them and hopefully will have more info for my next post.



Splattered shoes

Sock mark form the mud splattering I got

 

Mucky hands. Took a bit of scrubbing

 

 

 

New Year, New Balls

...And by that title I mean when I get round to doing my first balls run of the year I need to start thinking about getting my record breaking balls worn in for the race.
It's been another month since my last post and we've had Christmas and New Year to deal with, during which time I had to take a nine day break due to illness (certainly not related to overindulgence). My first run of the new year was a track night which ended in 8 x 60m sprints. I was feeling pretty hot end enjoyed pretending I was a sprinter (having never been any good at it). I really threw myself into it - so much so that all that arm pumping made changing gear in the car painful on the way home. It also meant that I tore loads of muscle fibres in my quads, no doubt in an ultimately good way but I was genuinely feeling sore for a full week.
I've been in the gym at my son's school practising my ball handling skills this week and as the track was closed this week due to snow I had time to put together the following video:

I didn't do a balls run last weekend as I was still aching from track and was taking photographs at the Minnis Bay cross country race on the Sunday (although I did run 11 miles on the Saturday). I've been away for a family function all this weekend but did manage to get 15.65 miles in in Newton Aycliffe (without balls). Mostly road. Some of it icy. A bit of cross country thrown in, all in 02:11:57 which is averaging 08:26 per mile. I won't get to take the balls out this weekend either as I've got the Canterbury 10 on the Sunday which I ought to be able to do in somewhere between 70 and 75 minutes. So it will be the weekend of the 28th January before I have a go at maybe 17 miles with the new race balls - that's if it isn't snowy or icy.

I may have some other news to share before then and if I do I'll make another short post.